Cross-Cultural Linguistic Realizations of Conceptualizations of 'anger': Revisiting Cognitive and Pragmatic Paradigms

Interest in the intersection of emotion and language has generated a significant body of research with several different theoretical orientations over the past several decades. Those studies that are more specifically cast within the paradigms of theoretical and cognitive linguistics and cross-cultural pragmatics have provided a rich ground for continuing the analysis of not only interesting research questions, but have also provided a robust body of crosslinguistic data for consideration. The following study is an attempt to bring into focus a specific body of cognitive linguistic research on the semantic categories of 'anger' as found in contemporary German and Russian. When appropriate, English language data will be used to enhance the discussion. Our analysis will consider specifically the works of Kovecses, Wierzbicka, Steen, Levontina/Zalizniak, and Durst as representing the central viewpoints of the field with regard to the study of the relationship of emotion and language. Our conclusions and suggestions for future directions, which are a direct consequence of a cross-cultural approach, will attempt to contextualize the non-universality of emotive and linguistic categories and the importance of cultural space in defining and negotiating all forms of human discourse. Adapted from the source document